Learning Pathways Research Articles

Developing a Risk Prediction Model for COVID-19 Infection in Heart Transplant Recipients Using Artificial Intelligence

Aim: Describe the utility of an inverse reinforcement learning pathway to develop a novel model to predict and manage the spread of COVID-19. Materials & methods: Convolutional neural network (CNN) with multilayer perceptron (MLP) modeling functions utilized inverse reinforcement learning to predict COVID-19 outcomes based on a comprehensive array of factors. Results: Our model demonstrates a sensitivity of 0.67 in the receiver operating characteristic curve and can correctly identify approximately 67% of the positive cases. Conclusion: We demonstrate the ability to augment clinical decision-making with a novel artificial intelligence (AI) solution that accurately predicted the susceptibility of transplant patients to COVID-19. This enables physicians to administer treatment and take appropriate preventative measures based on patients' risk factors.

Evaluating and expanding usability and user satisfaction of an online research portal

Whilst online learning has gained rapid momentum, the development of online technology and practices that support the delivery of online courses with a large research component has been slow. In 2017, the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University, Australia, developed a potentially scalable and transferable online research portal. This is an all-in-one platform that is designed to facilitate and support online research and research supervision, for supervisors and students. The research portal has evolved to currently provide research and research supervision support to over 700 online psychology students at the university. This paper describes the development, implementation and impact of the research portal and presents data from a preliminary evaluation of its usability and user satisfaction. Both research students and supervisors from the fully online fourth-year Graduate Diploma of Psychology Advanced program at Monash University participated in a series of focus groups, individual usability testing sessions, and surveys, and reported favourably on the research portal’s research supervisor and supervisee user satisfaction and usability. Qualitative and quantitative feedback provided useful information supporting research portal improvement and expansion possibilities, allowing an increasingly valuable contribution to online research supervision, research and research teaching. Implications for practice or policy All research students will be able to complete their research-related professional training online. Research supervisors and students will be able to access a standardised best practice online research supervision and research tool across courses and topics. Course leaders will be able to expand online education with an online research supervision and research tool that supports all research programs. Universities will be able to provide a research learning pathway for all students.

The effect of consanguineous marriage on reading disability based on deep neural networks

For knowledge acquisition and social engagement, reading comprehension is essential. However, 20% or so of younger students have trouble with it. In order to predict the effects of consanguineous marriage on reading handicap and customize adaptive learning experiences, the study proposes an Intelligent Adaptive Learning and Prediction Framework (IALPF). This framework is proposed as a transformative solution that smoothly combines cutting-edge AI approaches. IALPF provides precise predictions and individualized learning pathways by utilizing extensive cognitive profiling, data gathering, and hybrid neural network design. It includes early warning systems, flexible content distribution, and ongoing development based on active learning and feedback loops. The IALPF represents a significant change in education that has wide-ranging effects. We evaluated reading skills among 770 students in a study that included two experimental groups, a control group, and 22 pupils from first-cousin marriages and 21 children of unrelated parents, respectively. Tests were given for word identification and reading comprehension, among other things. The findings showed that children of first cousin parents had a higher chance of reading difficulties than those of parents from other families. The outstanding performance of IALPF, which outperformed conventional techniques like Back Propagation (BP) and General Regression Neural Network (GRNN), was further supported by empirical evaluation. This demonstrates IALPF's success in reinventing personalized learning and predictive analysis, strengthening its potential to improve education in a variety of scenarios. The seamless integration of cutting-edge AI methods into IALPF, which forecasts the effect of consanguineous marriage on reading handicap, is a significant innovation. To set it apart from conventional approaches, this special framework integrates cognitive profile, information gathering, and hybrid neural networks for accurate predictions. The empirical analysis demonstrates the revolutionary potential of IALPF by demonstrating its improved predictive accuracy when compared to Back Propagation (BP) and General Regression Neural Network (GRNN).

Applying Implementation Science Principles to Design the ACR Peer Learning Pathway: A Case Study

Applying Implementation Science Principles to Design the ACR Peer Learning Pathway: A Case Study

Abstract 18916: Myocardial Proteomic Signatures in Human Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Introduction: Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) constitutes more than half of all heart failure but has few effective therapies. Recent myocardial transcriptomics and metabolomics have revealed major differences between HFpEF and controls and HF with a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF); however, how this translates at the protein level is unknown. Methods: Endomyocardial biopsies from patients with HFpEF, nonfailing donor controls and analyzed by data-dependent (n=10 HFpEF, n=9 non-failing controls) and data-independent (n=44 HFpEF, n=5 non-failing controls) mass-spectrometry-based proteomics. Results: The results were integrated with reported RNAseq and clinical characteristics. Proteomics data were analyzed with machine learning and gene ontology (GO) pathway analysis. Both HFpEF and HFrEF proteomes exhibited remarkable similarities, showing upregulation of cytoskeletal pathways and down regulation of oxidative phosphorylation pathways. Notably, structural ribosomal proteins and proteins associated with EIF 2 signaling were downregulated in HFpEF but not HFrEF. Integration with prior transcriptome data found a striking discrepancy between gene (up) and protein (down) expression for oxidative phosphorylation pathways in HFpEF, versus concordant reduction in HFrEF. Agnostic clustering of the HFpEF proteome identified two sub-groups, one with marked downregulation of oxidative phosphorylation and translational initiation pathways versus the other. This sub-group also had the highest proportion of HFpEF patients above the median BMI (40 kg/m 2 in our cohort). Conclusions: To our surprise, no hemodynamic and echocardiographic differences were observed between these groups. Despite marked differences in clinical presentation and pathophysiology, both HFpEF and HFrEF had very similar changes in protein abundance related to cytoskeletal and oxidative phosphorylation related pathways. Integration of proteomics, transcriptomics, and pathway analysis identifies a major deficit in protein translation in HFpEF that is not predictable based on clinical indices. These data reveal a unique proteomic HFpEF signature and identify potential proteins and pathways for therapeutic intervention.

Single-cell transcriptomics reveals the brain evolution of web-building spiders

Spiders are renowned for their efficient capture of flying insects using intricate aerial webs. How the spider nervous systems evolved to cope with this specialized hunting strategy and various environmental clues in an aerial space remains unknown. Here we report a brain-cell atlas of >30,000 single-cell transcriptomes from a web-building spider (Hylyphantes graminicola). Our analysis revealed the preservation of ancestral neuron types in spiders, including the potential coexistence of noradrenergic and octopaminergic neurons, and many peptidergic neuronal types that are lost in insects. By comparing the genome of two newly sequenced plesiomorphic burrowing spiders with three aerial web-building spiders, we found that the positively selected genes in the ancestral branch of web-building spiders were preferentially expressed (42%) in the brain, especially in the three mushroom body-like neuronal types. By gene enrichment analysis and RNAi experiments, these genes were suggested to be involved in the learning and memory pathway and may influence the spiders’ web-building and hunting behaviour. Our results provide key sources for understanding the evolution of behaviour in spiders and reveal how molecular evolution drives neuron innovation and the diversification of associated complex behaviours.

CERTI-BLOCK A Blockchain Technology Based Certificate Validation System

Abstract: In recent years, blockchain technology has made significant strides, offering promising opportunities to revolutionize the education sector. This innovation can create innovative and cost-effective learning pathways while redefining the relationships between educators and students. One of its most transformative aspects is the creation of immutable digital certificates, which could overcome the limitations of current certificate verification systems by providing speed, reliability, and independence from central authorities. Despite its potential, the application of blockchain in education is still in its infancy, and this paper aims to shed light on this emerging field

Building Lifelong Learning Participation with the ATU Higher Education 4.0 Project: Recognising Prior Learning (RPL) and Providing Career and Learning Pathways with MyCareerPath.ie

Higher Education 4.0 (HE 4.0) is an ambitious, innovative, and collaborative project from the Atlantic Technological University (ATU), Ireland. A €12.3 million project supported by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) in Ireland under the HCI, Human Capital Initiative. It is a vision for future agility in higher education and provides for opportunities into and through higher education. 
 
 The Careers and RPL Learning Pathways platform under HE 4.0 incorporates a regional service from the ATU for the assessment of Recognised Prior Learning (RPL) and the development of personalised career and learning pathways. This new university service is delivered through an online platform at www.mycareerpath.ie and an RPL information site for the ATU at www.myexperience.ie 
 
 The online MyCareerPath.ie platform involves engagement with employers and potential students to the Atlantic Technological University. The service involves advising candidates on the learning pathways available and appropriate to them, and how to achieve their career objectives or improve their employability. 
 
 This paper will explore the ATU Career and RPL learning pathways project development journey to date and how the findings emerging from the research and evaluation activities, are informing the establishment of a regional careers and RPL service, supporting lifelong learning participation and upskilling in the workforce. In addition, the process is informing enhancements to the university’s RPL assessment process, policy development and access to higher education initiatives. To conclude, industry pilot case exemplars will be discussed and their engagement with MyCareerPath.ie assessment services, an RPL assessment portfolio and a variety of micro-courses supporting the transition to higher education.

Building Digital Capabilities with DigitalEd.ie: Learnings from the Digital Transformation Journey at ATU

In 2019, the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Ireland (previously known as GMIT, IT Sligo and LYIT) were awarded a HEA Innovation and Transformation award to build digital capabilities across 8 campuses. The project is called iNOTE and it provides opportunities to transform the higher education experience in the CUA institutes (2019-2022). The Teaching and Learning Centre (Galway-Mayo) is leading the development of DigitalEd.ie Knowledge Platform and digital teaching and learning development initiatives (i.e., Work Package 2 of the iNOTE project).
 
 DigitalEd.ie, is a digital teaching and learning knowledge platform, which provides access to professional development pathways and a suite of digital resources, to build digital capabilities and pedagogic expertise, so that educators can design, deliver and support flexible and online learning programmes effectively.
 
 This paper will discuss: the development journey of DigitalEd.ie; building a digital education community; designing digital learning pathways; creating a digital resources directory; insights and impact of building digital teaching and learning capabilities during the pandemic; and the creation of a suite of digital education services and resources, that is transforming the higher education learning experience.
 
 The development journey of DigitalEd.ie knowledge platform uncovered several resources and learnings, including a discovery tool, digital tools to support online student engagement, meaningful and robust assessment strategies, digital badges and learning pathways, and teaching and learning techniques moving from online to hybrid delivery. In addition, 20 digital teaching and learning impact case studies were developed across eight themes (https://DigitalEd.ie/book), outlining how and why educators transformed their teaching and learning practice and the impact on student engagement. 
 
 This paper will conclude with feedback from participants who undertook digital learning opportunities through the DigitalEd.ie monthly training programme, the Discovery Tool, Digital Badge pathways, and an accredited postgraduate Certificate in Digital Teaching and Learning. The feedback gathered through the action research study provides insights on the value of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and considerations for the digital learning environment in higher education, post Covid-19.

Exploring fruitful links between real-world laboratory and disciplinary research: Introduction of the DKN Future Earth working group LinkLab

LinkLab is a newly established working group under the umbrella of German Committee Future Earth (DKN Future Earth). It opens up a space to discuss relevant connections and interfaces between real-world lab research and various scientific disciplines, exploring fruitful connections and pathways for mutual learning for future sustainability-oriented research.

Addressing Challenges in Long-Term Strategic Energy Planning in LMICs: Learning Pathways in an Energy Planning Ecosystem

This paper presents an innovative approach to addressing critical global challenges in long-term energy planning for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The paper proposes and tests an international enabling environment, a delivery ecosystem, and a community of practice. These components are integrated into workflows that yield four self-sustaining capacity-development outcomes. Planning long-term energy strategies in LMICs is particularly challenging due to limited national agency and poor international coordination. While outsourcing energy planning to foreign experts may appear to be a viable solution, it can lead to a reduction in government agency (the ability of a government to make its own informed analysis and decisions). Additionally, studies commissioned by external experts may have conflicting terms of reference, and a lack of familiarity with local conditions can result in misrepresentations of on-the-ground realities. It is argued here that enhancing national agency and analytical capacity can improve coordination and lead to more robust planning across line ministries and technical assistance (TA) providers. Moreover, the prevailing consulting model hampers the release and accessibility of underlying analytics, making it difficult to retrieve, reuse, and reconstruct consultant outputs. The absence of interoperability among outputs from various consultants hinders the ability to combine and audit the insights they provide. To overcome these challenges, five strategic principles for energy planning in LMICs have been introduced and developed in collaboration with 21 international and research organizations, including the AfDB, IEA, IRENA, IAEA, UNDP, UNECA, the World Bank, and WRI. These principles prioritize national ownership, coherence and inclusivity, capacity, robustness, transparency and accessibility. In this enabling environment, a unique delivery ecosystem consisting of knowledge products and activities is established. The paper focuses on two key knowledge products as examples of this ecosystem: the open-source energy modeling system (OSeMOSYS) and the power system flexibility tool (IRENA FlexTool). These ecosystem elements are designed to meet user-friendliness, retrievability, reusability, reconstructability, repeatability, interoperability, and audibility (U4RIA) goals. To ensure the sustainability of this ecosystem, OpTIMUS is introduced—a community of practice dedicated to maintaining, supporting, expanding, and nurturing the elements within the ecosystem. Among other ecosystem elements, training and research initiatives are introduced, namely the Energy Modelling Platform for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific as well as the ICTP Joint Summer School on Modelling Tools for Sustainable Development. Once deployed via workflows, the preliminary outcomes of these capacity-development learning pathways show promise. Further investigation is necessary to evaluate their long-term impacts, scalability, replication, and deployment costs.

Pathways of Early Childhood Development practitioners into higher education: A capabilities approach

The creation of professional learning pathways in the field of early childhood development (ECD) is currently a key policy priority in South Africa, especially as research has indicated the critical need that exists for investment in ECD practitioners to resolve previous educational inequalities and poor throughput rates in formal schooling. The option of recognition of prior learning (RPL) often provides the only route into post-school studies for educators in this historically marginalised sector to enable them to pursue formal qualifications. The barriers faced by mature females, who constitute a large proportion of ECD practitioners, include mismatches between occupational and discipline-based qualifications and a lack of understanding of the non-traditional routes into higher education. This article reports on an investigation into the experiences of a sample of mature women who attempted to access higher education with non-traditional qualifications. Using the lens of capabilities theory, we demonstrate the significant efforts made by these ECD practitioners to achieve their goals of personal and economic freedom by accessing further training and higher education through RPL. The article concludes with a discussion on implementing effective RPL for transitions in post-school education and training.

AI-driven Technology and Chatbots as Tools for Enhancing English Language Learning in the Context of Second Language Acquisition: A Review Study

The proposed review study aims to explore the role of AI-driven technology and chatbots in enhancing English language learning within the context of second language acquisition. With the increasing integration of technology into language education, AI-driven tools and chatbots have raised as innovative approaches to provide personalized and interactive learning experiences. This review study aims to examine the effectiveness of these tools in improving language proficiency, learner engagement, and learner autonomy. The review involves a comprehensive analysis of relevant literature, including empirical studies, theoretical frameworks, and best practices in the field. The findings reveal that AI-driven technology and chatbots offer numerous benefits, such as individualized feedback, adaptive learning pathways, and authentic language interactions. Moreover, they promote learner’s motivation, active participation, and self-directed learning. However, challenges regarding the design, implementation, and assessment of these tools also emerge. This review study provides insights into the potential and limitations of AI-driven technology and chatbots in English language learning and suggests future directions for research and pedagogical applications in second language acquisition.

Learning Scores and Economics Instruction

This study explains how economics instructors can incorporate pretest and posttest assessments into their economics courses to make testing and related teaching more dynamic and interactive with students. Such assessments allow the correct and incorrect responses to pretest and posttest items to be used by instructors to create four learning scores that reveal different pathways of student learning—positive, retained, negative, and zero. Learning scores provide more insights into learning progression among students during an instructional unit or a course than is possible with the typical posttest only assessment. The study explains how learning scores can be used by economics instructors to analyze classroom or group learning, to diagnose individual student understandings or misunderstandings, and assess how each test item contributes to student learning. It discusses the practical applications and extensions of learning score analysis that make it realistic for economics instructors to use and addresses measurement concerns. JEL Codes: A2, A22

Brief Remarks on the Strategic Experimentation of Belonging and the Instauring of Cosmicities in the Context of Art Education

AbstractThis article considers the notion of belonging as an always incomplete and evolving journey integral to which is the gift of otherness; a journey that consists of a continuous mutation of self, others and world. This contrasts with the more fixed notion of ‘belonging‐to’ that suggests prescribed identities affiliated to an established order, which can then invoke the negation of ‘not belonging’ and the subsequent violence of exclusion, marginalisation or dispossession that we witness almost endlessly. The negation of negation as manifested, perhaps unconsciously, in educational practices that need to respond empathetically to diverse pathways of learning, is central to this article. In this light perhaps in education we require a new declaration of rights, the right to have rights, that extends cartographies and obligations of belonging, in a world of increasing precarity. The article explores the notion of belonging in educational practices by articulating a series of scenarios in order to open up collective debate for possibilities in pedagogical practice.

Exploring the pathways of learning from project failure and success in new product development teams

In today's business environment, New Product Development (NPD) teams play a pivotal role in propelling innovation. Within NPD teams, both successful and failed projects contribute in enhancing learning processes, yet the epistemological pathways activated by successful projects differ distinctly from those stimulated by failed projects. In this study, we investigate the pathways towards team learning in the context of successful and failed NPD projects using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Drawing from the team learning literature, we examine which configurations of project characteristics (complexity and uncertainty), interpersonal team characteristics (innovation norms, cohesion, and decision-making autonomy), and environmental characteristics (technological and market turbulence) lead to NPD team learning. Our analysis identifies three configurations of factors tied to NPD team learning in successful projects and four configurations in failed projects. In successful projects, project and team characteristics are core in enhancing team learning. In failed projects, together with team characteristics, core conditions are represented by project complexity, uncertainty, while environmental characteristics play a dual role.

Cross-platform language learning: A spatial perspective on narratives of language learning across digital platforms

In the current reality of digital activity, individuals often explore more than one digital platform for language learning. Despite increasing research on the uses of digital platforms for language learning in informal contexts, the cross-platform experience remains in need of elucidation. Drawing on spatial perspectives on digital technology and language learning to conceptualize digital platforms as digital spaces, this study examines the cross-platform experiences of two international students studying English in Australia based on narrative data collected from journal entries, stimulated recall interviews, and social media posts. A narrative approach to the analysis reveals precisely how they organized a variety of digital resources and learning opportunities in online gaming, searching, media-sharing, social networking, and language learning spaces. The learners strategically orchestrated this particular range of digital spaces in alignment with personal interest and need. In accordance with the specific affordances of technological features in these spaces, they created a shared space of interaction in which learning occurred across geographically remote, networked individuals through multimodal language practices. The narrative approach is seen to add analytical power to the issue of space in the sphere of informal digital language learning, in which unique learning pathways for navigating diverse digital spaces are important.

Adopting a learning pathway approach to patient partnership in telehealth: A proof of concept

BackgroundAmidst the acceleration of digital health deployment in the province of Québec, the need to clarify the role of patients and caregivers was deemed essential to guide the deployment of telehealth strategies. A patient learning pathway (PLP) approach to patient and caregiver engagement was developed, containing knowledge, abilities, and skills mobilized by patients and caregivers at key moments of the life course with an illness, as well as emerging educational needs. ObjectiveThe objective of the current paper is to present the innovative PLP approach to patient and caregiver engagement in telehealth by applying it to three medical specialties within the context of the Québec healthcare system: dermatology, oncology, and mental health/psychiatry. MethodsThe PLP methodology is constituted of five chronological phases: 1) identification and engagement of main stakeholders; 2) exploration; 3) recruitment of patient and caregiver partners; 4) co-development of PLP first draft; and 5) validation and consensus building regarding competencies. ResultsThree PLPs (dermatology, oncology, and mental health/psychiatry) have already been mapped using this participatory approach, showing that the proposed PLP approach to patient and caregiver engagement in telehealth is feasible. ConclusionsMapping patient and caregiver competencies organized throughout patients' life course with an illness can lead to a highly operationalizable tool, which relevant stakeholders can use in a way that promotes patient self-management, shared decision-making, and empowerment. InnovationThe five-step PLP methodology developed proposes an innovative and structured approach to partnership with patients and caregivers in telehealth by outlining their roles throughout their life course with an illness.

Modeling training content for software engineers in parallel computing

This study proposes a robust framework for the training of software engineers specializing in parallel computing. We first curated essential content for parallel computing education based on international standards and evolving recommendations from Computing Curricula. We then systematically structured the content and designed a well-defined learning pathway for aspiring software engineers. Concurrently, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of the current state of training for parallel computing in Ukrainian higher education institutions. We analyzed bachelor’s programs in Information Technologies and scrutinized individual course syllabi to identify valuable insights. By merging our findings with the review of educational programs, we formulated a comprehensive model for training in parallel computing. We also examined the pivotal role of the course ”Parallel and Distributed Computing” in the developed curriculum and identified essential tools and methodologies for developing parallel and distributed programs. Our research contributes to the advancement of parallel computing education and provides a valuable reference point for curriculum designers and educators.

高校劳动教育数字化的发展途径探索

The digitization of education in China is currently centered around teaching digitization, gradually expanding to various application scenarios. The combination of theory and practice, labor ability and professional competence in labor education provides a broader space for the development of digital education. Digital platforms can provide diverse learning pathways, virtual learning communities, digital collaborative technologies, digital learning ecology, and digital education evaluation systems for labor education in universities. This article explores the development path of digitalization of labor education from these five aspects.